12
SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2014
GREECE
On 30 March 2013, engineer
Ronald Obermeier went to the
post office of his hometown
of Rimsting, Germany, hold-
ing a parcel that he had put
a lot of consideration into be-
fore posting it. He had care-
fully wrapped its contents the
previous night: 73 ancient rel-
ics dating from the Hellenis-
tic period to the 4th century
AD. He remembered these
objects displayed through-
out his childhood in a glass
cabinet in the family's living
room and his father telling
him the fascinating tale of
how they ended up there.
"I grew up with them, but
one day I decided it was
time for those antiquities
to go back where they be-
long," Obermeier told Kathi-
merini. He sent the parcel to
the Archaeological Museum
of Kos, the eastern Aegean
island where his father had
served as a German naval cor-
respondent in 1942, when the
Nazis occupied Greece.
"A building that served as a
museum was commandeered
to serve as the local headquar-
ters," he said. "They threw the
exhibits out the window. My
father gathered a few of the
objects and coins and brought
them to Germany. After his
death in 1996, these came to
me and I would now really
like to return them to a mu-
seum in Kos."
The looting of this small
museum is one of hundreds
of stories that unfolded dur-
ing the occupation of Greece
and would never have come to
light had Obermeier not taken
the initiative.
The only written source con-
cerning antiquities looted dur-
ing World War II is a 165-page
tome from 1946 recounting
hundreds of stories of illegal
excavations and destruction
carried out by all three occu-
pying forces - the Germans,
Italians and Bulgarians.
In the prologue, the minis-
ter of education and religion,
who ordered some of the most
prominent archaeologists of
the time to compile this record,
notes that it is incomplete.
It is this list that formed a
springboard more recently for
the Culture Ministry's Depart-
ment of Documentation and
Protection of Cultural Herit-
age. A group of six archaeolo-
gists and historians took the
initiative last year to create
a fresh record of missing an-
tiquities as well as those that
were returned to Greece fol-
lowing the end of the war.
"The list from 1946 was the
starting point but we now
have the opportunity to use
the German archives, which
were opened this last dec-
ade and provide a plethora
of information regarding the
events of those years, as well
as many other sources," ex-
plained Suzanna Houlia, head
of the department.
The ministry has also re-
cently sought the help of In-
terpol to trace at least 100
of the most precious items
found on the list.
The search has already started
on the websites of major mu-
seums around the world, with
a particular focus on exhibits
that are of "unknown prove-
nance from World War II".
The priority has been placed
on those objects for which
there is solid proof regarding
what they are and how they
were stolen. Among these
are two clay female figurines
taken by two Italian officers
from a local man on the island
of Sifnos, who had been hid-
ing them in his home togeth-
er with other valuable finds
from an excavation in 1935,
and two marble grave ste-
les removed by the Germans
in 1943 from a collection in
Kissamos, Crete.
Any one of these objects that
is found will join the list of
just 26 successful recoveries,
the first of which were made
in the summer in 1948.
THE FIRST EXPEDITION
On May 18, 1948, archaeolo-
gist Spyridon Marinatos set
off for Rome to retrieve sto-
len antiquities on the orders
of the Ministry of Education
and Religion.
As an archaeology professor
who "spoke three foreign lan-
guages, was well-travelled,
with studies in Berlin, and a
patriot, he had all those el-
ements that made him the
country's chief archaeologist
at the time", explained Eleni
Matzourani, a history profes-
sor who, together with Mar-
inatos’ daughter, Nanno, re-
cently wrote a biography of
his life using stories and ar-
chival material referring to
that trip that had never been
published before.
Marinatos had the list drawn
up in 1946, enough money - in
US dollars - and carte blanche
to follow his investigation
wherever it took him. The
most important thing he had
with him, however, was the
uniform of an army major, a
rank he was awarded in an ex-
pedited fashion a few months
earlier in order to facilitate
contact with the allied forces
in the search for the stolen an-
tiquities and the negotiations
regarding their return.
His trip lasted 75 days and he
ran into numerous obstacles,
including failing to make the
stop he had planned in Berlin
as the allied powers invoked
all sorts of bureaucratic obsta-
cles to his entry. In Rome and
at his other scheduled stop,
Graz in Austria, he also had
problems gaining the trust
and cooperation of army men
and even archaeologists.
Marinatos toured museums
and universities looking for
the objects on the list and
thanks to his acquaintances
in the international academic
community was able to find
many, as well as information
concerning the whereabouts
of others.
His aim in Rome was to find
dozens of antiquities stolen
from Rhodes in 1940 and to
include them in a large ar-
chaeological exhibition that
was to take place in Naples.
Graz was his second stop
and he arrived there in July
1948. He wanted to visit the
small Austrian town because
it was the home of the notori-
ous Austrian Nazi General Ju-
lius Ringel, whose headquar-
ters in 1941 were located at
the Villa Ariadne in Knossos,
Crete, and who pillaged both
the sites of Knossos and Gor-
tyna of a plethora of antiqui-
ties which he then shipped to
Germany.
When Marinatos arrived
there after experiencing the
disappointment of Berlin he
was dealt another blow: Rin-
gel had fled the town and
was wanted for war crimes.
His mansion had also been
ransacked by Russian troops,
who also made off with all of
the antiquities.
Marinatos, however, did
not give up his inquiries and
learned that some of the loot
from Knossos had been do-
nated by Ringel to the local
university, and he was thus
able to trace a number of
items. He packed them into
three large crates and shipped
them to Greece. In Septem-
ber, 1948, he joined these an-
tiquities on their final jour-
ney back to the archaeologi-
cal site of Knossos.
MUSEUMS HIDE EXHIBITS
Shortly after his 1948 trip,
Marinatos was appointed
Greece's director-general of
antiquities.
As well as the repatriations
he also faced the gargantuan
task of reorganising the coun-
try's museums, which had
been closed down during the
occupation and their contents
hidden away to protect them
from bombardments and loot-
ing occupation forces.
Using funds from the Mar-
shall Plan, he hired people for
just this job.
The operation to hide the ar-
tefacts had started on Novem-
ber 11, 1940, when the man-
agement of every museum in
the country received a circular
containing detailed instruc-
tions about how to store and
protect their exhibits.
"Early in the morning, be-
fore the moon set, everyone
tasked with the job would
gather at the museum and
work all through the day," the
late Semni Karouzou, a mem-
ber of the committee respon-
sible for salvaging the coun-
try's cultural treasures, wrote,
describing the situation at the
National Archaeological Mu-
seum, where the operation
lasted for six months.
Smaller objects were placed
in crates and stored in the
basements, while larger ex-
hibits, such as the 3-metre
Kouros of Sounio, were bur-
ied in the ground.
Similar operations were tak-
ing place all over the country
- objects were hidden in caves
on the Acropolis, in ancient
tombs, in gardens and even
in crypts. Some statues were
transported to other parts of
the country for safekeeping
and the catalogues of eve-
ry museum's treasure were
sealed in vaults in the Bank
of Greece.
So when the Nazis first start-
ed to arrive in Greece in April
1941, they found the coun-
try's museums either closed
or empty. Throughout the oc-
cupation, a special service set
up by the German military for
the protection of art pushed
for the museums to be reo-
pened. The only case in which
the Greek side bowed to its
demands was at the Archaeo-
logical Museum of Keramei-
kos, where the reasoning giv-
en was that it had been built
with German funding. The re-
sult of this decision was that
during a tour of high-ranking
Nazi officers of the premises
on November 9 1941, a black-
figure plate depicting a dead
man was stolen, and remains
missing to this day.
* This is an edited version of
an article first published in the
Greek daily Kathimerini.
Searching for
looted antiquities
Renowned Greek archaeologist
Spyridon Marinatos.
Larger exhibits in Greece’s National Archaeological Museum were buried
in the ground during World War II.
The only written source
concerning antiquities looted
in World War II is an incomplete
tome from 1946
MARIANNA KAKAOUNAKI
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“The search has already started
on the websites of major
museums around the world,
with a particular focus on
exhibits that are of ‘unknown
provenance from World War II’.”
-Suzanna Houlia